[HN Gopher] Oliver Stone Releases Trailer for His Pro-Nuclear En...
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       Oliver Stone Releases Trailer for His Pro-Nuclear Energy Movie
        
       Author : melling
       Score  : 56 points
       Date   : 2023-03-21 20:57 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.hollywoodreporter.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.hollywoodreporter.com)
        
       | stephc_int13 wrote:
       | I do think that Nuclear energy is better than fossil fuels, in
       | almost all aspects.
       | 
       | Nuclear power is not really that clean, and long-term maintenance
       | or dismantling of nuclear power plants is problematic.
       | 
       | Also, while I think we've been under the influence of powerful
       | lobbies linked to oil/coal interests, nuclear power is also an
       | industry with powerful and active lobbies.
       | 
       | We should not discount solar and wind based energy production,
       | they are beating expectations and are turning out to be a serious
       | option.
        
       | 10g1k wrote:
       | Countries with nuclear reactors: 32.
       | 
       | Countries which have had nuclear leaks or meltdowns: 15.
       | 
       | Number of nuclear leaks and meltdowns since 1952 (only those
       | which resulted in loss of human life or >US$50K property damage):
       | ~100.
       | 
       | About 60% of those have been in the USA, allegedly the most
       | advanced country in the world.
       | 
       | Note that the USA requirements for nuclear reactor waste (yes,
       | they produce toxic waste; they are not clean), last time I
       | checked, required the canisters to be able to survive for 300
       | years. The waste lasts longer than 300 years.
       | 
       | Two years ago the USA had a leak which spilled ~400,000 gallons
       | of radioactive water into a major river system, and it was
       | covered up for two years.
       | 
       | Finally: If you are not willing to have a nuclear reactor right
       | beside your house, but are willing to have one beside someone
       | else's house, you are a coward and are not really in favour of
       | nuclear power.
        
         | vfclists wrote:
         | 400,000 gallons = 12 meter cube of water.
         | 
         | And how concentrated was that?
         | 
         | Do you mind comparing it with the damage done by oil and coal
         | powered stations or even hydro?
        
         | hermitcrab wrote:
         | Lots of people have been killed by dam failures. 240,000 people
         | just from the failure of the Banqiao and Shimantan Dams in
         | 1975, according to wikipedia:
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dam_failure
         | 
         | But I don't see anyone calling for an end to hydroelectric
         | power. Fission power certainly has it's issues, but I think a
         | lot of the opposition to it is more emotional than rational.
        
           | pengaru wrote:
           | > But I don't see anyone calling for an end to hydroelectric
           | power.
           | 
           | You must not be looking very hard then, plenty folks object
           | to hydroelectric power.
        
             | PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
             | There's quite a big difference between objecting to
             | specific _instances_ of hydroelectric power and opposition
             | to the entire concept (as exists for nuclear fission)
        
         | katbyte wrote:
         | I would far rather live in a town with a nuclear power plant
         | the either a coal/oil/gas power plant.
        
         | melling wrote:
         | I don't want to live next to a coal power plant either.
         | 
         | 40% of the electricity globally is generated with coal.
         | 
         | It also produces something like 25% of greenhouse emissions.
         | 
         | It has been like this for half a century?
         | 
         | Waiting for the renewables and batteries really isn't working
         | out.
         | 
         | We've squandered decades, and could have bought ourselves an
         | extra few decades.
        
           | 10g1k wrote:
           | Not liking apples is not a pro-orange argument.
        
             | kbelder wrote:
             | It is is you have to eat and your choices are limited.
        
           | kmeisthax wrote:
           | For what it's worth burning coal emits more radiation than
           | nuclear.
        
           | Schroedingersat wrote:
           | No waiting was required. Wind + PHES has been a better option
           | since before fission reactors were invented.
        
         | Georgelemental wrote:
         | > 400,000 gallons of radioactive water
         | 
         |  _How_ radioactive? Bananas are  "radioactive" and so are you.
         | As far as I can tell the amount didn't actually pose a health
         | risk to anyone.
         | 
         | > If you are not willing to have a nuclear reactor right beside
         | your house, but are willing to have one beside someone else's
         | house, you are a coward and are not really in favour of nuclear
         | power.
         | 
         | I would live near a nuclear reactor. I wouldn't _prefer_ it, as
         | the cooling towers are unsightly. But I wouldn 't be worried
         | about safety. Definitely preferable to living next to a coal
         | plant!
        
         | uhtred wrote:
         | > If you are not willing to have a nuclear reactor right beside
         | your house, but are willing to have one beside someone else's
         | house, you are a coward and are not really in favour of nuclear
         | power.
         | 
         | If you are not willing to have a pig farm right beside your
         | house, but are willing to have one beside someone else's house,
         | you are a hypocrite and should not really be eating meat.
        
           | it_citizen wrote:
           | I would pick a nuclear plant over a dam any day.
        
             | PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
             | Sort of a pointless comparison, isn't it?
             | 
             | number of people who could live next to a dam: "small"
             | 
             | number of people who could live next a nuclear power plant:
             | "much, much larger"
        
         | mike_d wrote:
         | Here is a great thread that might clear up some of your
         | misconceptions about nuclear waste:
         | https://twitter.com/MadiHilly/status/1550148385931513856?lan...
        
         | smithcoin wrote:
         | Deaths per terawatt-hour of energy production:
         | 
         | - Biomass 4.63
         | 
         | - Brown coal 32.72
         | 
         | - Coal 24.62
         | 
         | - Gas 2.82
         | 
         | - Hydropower 1.30
         | 
         | - Nuclear 0.03
         | 
         | - Oil 18.43
         | 
         | - Solar 0.02
         | 
         | - Wind 0.04
         | 
         | Source: Markandya & Wilkinson (2007); Sovacool et al. (2016);
         | UNSCEAR (2008; & 2018)
         | 
         | Nuclear energy is one of the safest forms of energy we have.
        
           | this_user wrote:
           | Statistics like these are largely useless for comparison for
           | several reason. One of these is the small sample size of
           | nuclear accidents while the probability distribution of their
           | impact exhibits an extremely high kurtosis risk, what Nassim
           | Taleb calls a "Black Swan". All it takes is one Chernobyl-
           | level accident in a densely populated area, and these
           | statistics would look significantly worse for nuclear energy.
           | 
           | But even if you could avoid an extremely large number of
           | immediate and long-term deaths from the accident, suddenly
           | having to evacuate and relocate tens of millions of people
           | overnight would take most countries to the brink of collapse.
           | 
           | And none of that even takes into account how completely
           | uncompetitive nuclear energy is in economic terms, how long
           | it would take to build new plans, and that long-term storage
           | of radioactive waste still lacks a proper solution despite
           | decades of work. It's a dead technology, and the time has
           | come to stop wasting resources on trying to make it work when
           | those could be used much more productively to accelerate the
           | move towards renewables.
        
           | Schroedingersat wrote:
           | This is only valid reasoning if the danger from those TWh is
           | passed and is a statistically significant sample.
           | 
           | It also intentionally ignores the hundreds of thousands of
           | mining and mill workers and indiginous people living near
           | unremediated mines in India, Uzbekistan, Niger, Usa,
           | Kazakhstan, Mayak, and so on.
        
         | computershit wrote:
         | > Finally: If you are not willing to have a nuclear reactor
         | right beside your house, but are willing to have one beside
         | someone else's house, you are a coward and are not really in
         | favour of nuclear power.
         | 
         | Did anyone even make this point? What's more I don't think
         | _any_ one wants _any_ kind of power plant next to their house.
         | That 's why they're zoned.
        
         | vld_chk wrote:
         | Quite funny last statement.
         | 
         | There are no more supporters of nuclear than people who live
         | and work in this industry. So if you are trying to say that
         | people who live next to NPP are "against" it, you say a wrong
         | statement.
        
       | ZeroGravitas wrote:
       | Apparently he bashes wind and solar which is not particularly
       | helpful.
       | 
       | Makes his experts look like kooks if they claim "mostly nuclear"
       | is the way forward.
        
         | Georgelemental wrote:
         | It _is_ the way forward if you want a reliable grid. Solar and
         | wind are intermittent, and the storage technology we would need
         | to make them the primary source of power just doesn 't exist
         | yet.
        
       | sam_lowry_ wrote:
       | That same Oliver Stone that praised Putin until the 24-Feb-2022
       | and even a bit after?
        
         | gexaha wrote:
         | and also the same Oliver Stone that helped making conspiracy
         | theories mainstream!
        
           | jesusofnazarath wrote:
           | [dead]
        
         | 0xDEF wrote:
         | It's sad that nuclear energy has been so ostracized that only
         | Hollywood's compulsive contrarian support it.
        
           | asdff wrote:
           | Most of people's understanding of nuclear energy seems to
           | have come from _The Simpsons_. Big glowing leaky drums and 3
           | eyed fish.
        
           | givemeethekeys wrote:
           | You can support nuclear and not be a Hollywood contrarian
           | like, apparently, Oliver Stone.
        
         | inpdx wrote:
         | My thoughts exactly. I enjoyed his 80s films. He lost it
         | sometime after that.
        
       | hermitcrab wrote:
       | Having watched "JFK" I'm not really interested in anything Oliver
       | Stone has to say.
        
         | atleastoptimal wrote:
         | regardless of whether you agree with the message it was a great
         | movie
        
       | vld_chk wrote:
       | Very sad to see that such important topic and message are going
       | to be delivered by such freak. Now people who are against nuclear
       | power will have even more emotional arguments against it.
       | 
       | P.S. Specially for people who "if you don't live nearby: shut
       | up", I have lived near NPP my entire childhood and both of my
       | parents worked 30+ years in this industry.
        
         | epistasis wrote:
         | I agree that this is not a beneficial contribution to improving
         | the public debate about nuclear.
         | 
         | However the public debate around nuclear is pretty much
         | meaningless until there's a revolution in nuclear technology:
         | 
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35159449
         | 
         | Research on nuclear tech is continuing apace, without being
         | influenced by public debate. There are plenty of sites that
         | would love to have new nuclear if such a tech revolution
         | happens, especially at existing NPP.
        
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       (page generated 2023-03-21 23:01 UTC)